Mandate of Heaven

Mandate cycle

           

                   The Mandate of Heaven is an idea created by Zhou Kings. Every new dynasty (or king) receives the mandate of Heaven it prospers at the beginning but as time goes by it starts to fail and ends up losing its Mandate. It traces their descent straight from Heaven itself. Each Zhou king was considered a son of Heaven, and was given wisdom and power, by his ancestor. As the Son of Heaven they were expected to be wise, hardworking, not selfish, and win battles. But if the kings failed to do these things the spirits would cause natural disasters, if he failed to improve the spirits would take away their Mandate of heaven and a new king would come to power.